The episode, in writing
by Richard Lovatt · from the episode above, checked against what was said
I want to explain exactly where Underway came from and the actual problem that it solves. I think I mentioned this slightly in Episode 0, but I want to explain it a bit further.
Me and my fiancée were building another app. It's a wedding guest camera app, really unique. I, as the builder, pushed away marketing and creating content around it at the start. I assumed that when we got to a certain point, I know marketing, I know sales, that's my bread and butter, I'll take over at that point and we'll start putting content out there.
So our app got to that point where we both basically had the conversation about okay, so what do we do now, what should we do with content. Obviously we have ads, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, Google ads, LinkedIn ads, there's so many options there. But the big one staring at us in the face was the free aspect. You've got time, effort and patience when it comes to content marketing, but it's free.
I'm quote unquote an extrovert. I have no issues with being on camera, talking to the camera. I've been in films, TV ads, you name it. But that was really not the issue for me. We spoke about okay, should we both start making some organic content, should we both start making some videos and talking about our app, because it's really true that the public or retail really connects with founders who do this. You can connect with founders and the people behind a brand rather than just the brand, especially when you're building something.
But we both hit that wall, and that wall was a bit of both. For me it was, okay, I'm fine with just being on camera, but the thought process behind having to create the content. I like to do something really well, and content nowadays, especially when you put it out on social media, is really about the hook, it's really about the script, it's really about the lighting, there's so much that goes into it. There's also a lot of founders out there who simply find it hard being on camera.
For me, even though I love being on camera, the thought process behind structuring it and then the consistency, thinking to myself, not only am I going to have to think about each video every day, what do I say in the script, what am I going to portray, and is that a good enough hook, it kind of just made me think, forget it, it's too difficult. I'm sure there's so many builders and founders out there who just don't do the marketing organically, who don't build in public and create videos, because of this exact aspect.
That's literally where Underway Live came from, because I thought, if there was something that made this so easy for me, where all I had to do was sit down in front of a screen and answer questions and talk about what I had done, I'd do it. That's where it's derived from.
Right now I'm recording this episode and I'm already slightly addicted. I'm on episode two, I've done episode zero, episode one, I'm already slightly addicted. I'm already waking up thinking, what am I going to do today, what topic am I going to talk about today, what am I going to build and what's the topic at the end of the day going to be about. Usually I'm recording every evening, and it's already 11am and I just had this burning topic to talk about.
I can just imagine now, in six months to a year's time, looking back, and all of this content that I'm creating right now is there in my directory. So when Underway does get to my goal of one million annual recurring revenue, I'm also going to have this massive directory of everything that I built, and it's all going to be in public. It's just going to be a really cool way for the brand to grow and for people to connect to myself and the Underway product from the start.